"Cause" vs. "Justified" (was: Re: Hitchens responds to critics)

[Justin Schwartz]

>
>Nathan Newman wrote:
>
>>So how does the Left defend the virtue of the working class while 
>>demonizing
>>its elected leaders?
>
>Well you start by saying that the state is a class state, that
>despite the mechanics of formal democracy, generally represents the
>interests of a ruling class. You add to that that the media that help
>form the consciousness of that working class are in the pocket of
>that ruling class.
>
>That's not a very obscure position, is it?

What are you, some kind of a commie?

I myself do not defend the virtue of the working class. Generically 
speaking, the working class is ignorant, reactionary, prejudiced, sexist, 
and crude. What do you expext, given the circumstnaces of their lives? 
They're just the world's only hope.

I agree with Nathan, actually, that we have a sort of democracy, and that 
this is a good thing. I do not agree, and neither would Nathan if he shifted 
into his analytical mode, that this means that there is a tight link between 
the "will of the people," whatever that is, and the policies adopted by our 
leaders in foreign policy or elsewhere. Democracy means that there is a 
remote possibility that one might be able in some indirect way to influence 
or change the policy, usually when it is too late, not that the actions of 
out leaders are invested in the aura of direct popular rule.

I do not think that it is Nathan's commitment to the DP that makes hism say 
such odd things as he has been saying. There are lots of Democrats who agree 
with us and not with him. My mom, for example. Maybe it is the shock of 
looking out your window in Jersey City at the hole in the skyline. It could 
make you or me a bid loopy too.

jks
>
>Doug

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